Advertisers are getting serious about cutting carbon from their campaigns. But before publishers can make their ad tech greener, they have to measure their emissions to create an accurate foundation for building a sustainability strategy upon.
However, measurement and consulting can be expensive. And publishers are often reluctant to make changes to their ad tech stacks unless they feel assured it will lead to more demand from buyers.
With this in mind, SSP Sharethrough announced its Net Zero Publisher Program today, aimed at securing commitments from publishers to pursue carbon neutrality.
Sharethrough will cover the costs of emissions measurement for any publisher participating in the program for one year. In addition, Sharethrough is promising better access to sustainability-minded buyers through inclusion in its new Path to Net Zero Marketplace and its Green PMPs, which are private marketplace deals that only include environmentally friendly publishers.
Ad agency IPG Mediabrands has signed on as a demand-side partner for the program, and Hearst Newspapers is thus far the only named publisher participant. Sharethrough has reached out to about 30 publishers, and five are ready to participate in the program at launch, including Hearst.
“It’s critical to democratize net-zero ambitions for all players in the media ecosystem,” said Martin Bryan, global chief sustainability officer at IPG. “Small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the larger players, should have access to measurement solutions and a clear path to SBTi [Science-Based Targets initiative] certification.”
Standards and practices
SBTi is an initiative that helps private-sector companies establish carbon reduction plans in accordance with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement treaty on climate change.
SBTi takes the full scope of a publisher’s carbon emissions into account, including the Scope 1 emissions directly generated by their digital properties and the Scope 2 and 3 emissions produced indirectly by activities such as operating office buildings, business travel and working with third parties.
European sustainability startup 51toCarbonZero (51-0), founded by Accenture and Mckinsey alum Neil Woodcock and Dentsu’s former strategy chief Richard Davis, will provide measurement and consulting services for Net Zero Publisher Program participants. Its software also provides recommendations for changes publishers can make to help them reach SBTi goals.
For instance, publishers commonly employ lazy loading, in which on-page ads only refresh when they’re visible on the user’s screen, to cut down on the programmatic bid requests they send to their partners.
Participants will work with 51-0 to commit to a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2030 or 2040, said Benoit Skinazi, CMO at Sharethrough. To do so, publishers must share their emissions data with 51-0, which Sharethrough won’t have access to, Skinazi said.
But what does “net zero” really mean in practical terms?
“Net zero doesn’t mean you’re not generating carbon emissions,” Skinazi said. “It means you’re doing everything in your power to reduce your emissions and potentially compensate for the remaining ones [through carbon offsets].”
The timeline will be unique for each publisher. For example, a publisher that has a lot of office space would face a longer path to net zero than one whose employees are all working remotely, Skinazi said.
Buying green
The program is launching as buyers limit business with publishers that aren’t reducing emissions.
“A publisher’s carbon emissions are one of the many factors we consider when deciding whether to partner,” said IPG’s Bryan. The agency is considering devoting a portion of its clients’ ad budgets exclusively to publishers pursuing net-zero emissions, he added.
Since reducing Scope 3 emissions is part of most carbon-reduction frameworks, buyers need publishers to be more sustainable to meet their own sustainability goals.
“In the US, for example, we aim to reduce our emissions by 30% YOY from an April 2023 baseline, defined with our measurement partner, Scope3,” Bryan said. “In order to achieve this, we need to work with the industry to find ways to optimize the supply path and encourage our partners to reduce their emissions.”
While campaign performance remains advertisers’ top concern, IPG has noticed clients placing increased priority on reducing the Scope 3 emissions generated by their publisher partners, Bryan added.
And sustainability and performance don’t seem to be in opposition. “Early indicators are that performance either remains consistent or improves when running on more sustainable media options,” he said.
Sharethrough has delivered more than 1 billion impressions for at least 8,000 brands through its Green PMPs since the product launched in June 2022, which has gone a long way toward proving to publishers the value of getting more involved in sustainability efforts like its new program, Skinazi said.
IPG expects the Net Zero Publisher Program to likewise convince publishers to take sustainability seriously, perhaps even leading to a domino effect industrywide.
“Both demand side and supply side have to work closely together,” Bryan said, “if we are to truly build a more sustainable advertising ecosystem.”
